


Beginning Nutrition and Other Concerns

by DJClawson



Series: Theodore Nelson's Adventures in Sharing a Workspace [4]
Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Bisexual Matt Murdock, Claire Temple (mentioned) - Freeform, Danny Rand (mentioned) - Freeform, F/M, Foggy Nelson Is a Good Bro, Grindr, Luke Cage (mentioned) - Freeform, M/M, Matt Murdock & Foggy Nelson Friendship, Multi, Obnoxious cat, The food service industry is just drugs and cursing, veganism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-09-16 23:39:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16963668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DJClawson/pseuds/DJClawson
Summary: Matt knows how to sew stitches and wrap bandages, but not how to care for someone who is sick.





	Beginning Nutrition and Other Concerns

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Pogopop for the beta work, and thank you to all the people who left lovely comments!
> 
> Also, if fail my Hebrew exam it's the fault of this series.

Even though Karen didn’t like the whole “fake blind thing,” as she put it, she still let Matt hold her arm when they walked. He had bothered to explain that the cane did let his brain rest a little, but at the time she’d been rather hostile to everything he said. Now it was just easier for both of them.

He hadn’t told her about Theo, partially because that wasn’t his secret to tell and partially because she hadn’t told him about Frank. Not that she smelled of Frank in that particular way, but he’d definitely been _around_ her recently – probably at her apartment – and she hadn’t told Matt or Foggy, so Matt pretended he didn’t know. He supposed he should be jealous or protective or something, and part of him was a little sad for reasons he couldn’t really define, but it did take the edge off restarting something serious with Karen, or figuring out if he wanted to do that at all.

Not that he wouldn’t be torn if she invited him to her apartment right now. He was kind of a scumbag in that respect. But nobody had to know about that.

Karen stopped short in front of the store, and Matt tried the door and found it locked. There were no sounds inside, despite it being the middle of the day, in the middle of the lunch rush. “Karen?”

“Oh. Um, there’s a sign taped up inside the door,” she said. She’d forgotten he was blind again. Not her fault, really. His senses were hard to explain. “It says ‘Closed for Family Emergency.’”

“Family emergency?” He couldn’t get his phone out fast enough; Karen almost beat him to it by a few seconds. “Call Foggy.” He listened for the sound of police cars or ambulances, but there was nothing nearby.

Foggy picked up after four rings. “Hey. Karen saw the note?”

Matt had it on speaker and Karen leaned in and said, “Hey. Are you okay?”

“Me? _I’m_ fine. Because I, unlike some people, have a healthy level of iron in my blood and didn’t pass out in front of a room full of customers,” Foggy said. “And I didn’t hit my head on the floor and have to wait for the CAT scan to make sure I’m not _bleeding into my brain_. Crap, someone’s probably going to call the board of health on us.”

Theo mumbled in the background; even Matt couldn’t make out what he said, with the background noises of an ER.

“Yeah, so we’re fine,” Foggy said. “I’m fine, and Theo’s got a thick skull, so he’s probably fine, too.”

“Is there anything we can do?” Karen asked, leaning into the phone.

“Yes. Yes there definitely is,” Foggy said. “Go into the fridge and find the bloodiest, rawest steak you can find – “

_“No!”_

“ – and cook it up, but not too much, I mean I want it to still be dripping blood, and wrap it in tinfoil and bring it over here so I can shove it down my brother’s throat while they process the paperwork to let us out of here.”

“ _It’s not like antibiotics! It doesn’t work like that!_ ”

“Hush. Let the person whose hemoglobin level is above a 10 decide what’s for lunch,” Foggy said as an aside, then returned to the phone. “Actually, can you pick up some smoked salmon from the bagel place? Sesame seed bagel with that tofu cream cheese they have. He’ll probably eat that.”

“We can do that,” Matt said, knowing his smile was probably inappropriate. It was a _little_ funny.

“I can do it,” Karen said after Foggy hung up. “You don’t like hospitals, right?”

“No one likes hospitals,” Matt said. And he felt like he could negotiate between the brothers a little better. “Can you enter the Baxter interview into the computer system, please? I want to listen to it later. I can handle them.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah. Been doing it for a decade,” he said, offering a reassuring smile before heading to the bagel shop that Foggy liked. He picked up an extra bagel with lox, which was Foggy’s favorite, and he could get cranky when he hadn’t eaten.

Hospitals weren’t the easiest places to navigate and his senses just made them worse, but he held the bag of bagels close to his nose and listened for Foggy and Theo inevitably yelling at each other, at least at polite hospital volumes. It didn’t take long to find them behind curtains, arguing about who was going to tell their parents.

“Oh. Hey,” Foggy said. “I thought you hated hospitals.”

“I do.” He handed over the bagels, but kept the bag they came in crumpled up in his hand. “How are you?”

“I’m fine,” Theo said as Foggy unwrapped and shoved a fish sandwich in his arms. “No internal bleeding, so they’re just figuring out how much they can charge us.”

“Did you notice anything?” Foggy asked. “Like that he’s really thin?”

“He’s always been really thin,” Matt said.

“And he’s always been really pale so that doesn’t help.” Foggy slapped Theo on the back. “Eat up. I’m going to hit up the cafeteria for a nice carton of milk. And Matt – no helping!”

“Ugh,” Theo said as Foggy left, fiddling with the edges of the wrapping. “I haven’t had dairy in three years! Milk is going to do a number on my stomach.”

“He’s just worried about – three years? Haven’t you been vegan since – “

“Yeah, but, every couple years, this happens. It just hasn’t happened when Foggy’s been around,” Theo said, picking up one half of the bagel. “You know what it was? The pharmacy stopped carrying the brand of iron supplements that I can digest, and I told myself I’d order them online, and with all the other supplements, I just forgot.” He didn’t have that much hesitation about taking a huge bite of fish and bread. “And that was like ... two months ago? I’ll eat some fish, extra spinach, my numbers will go back up. My parents will still give me hell about it, though.” He took another bite. “Shit! I feel bad about how good this tastes. You want some? It’s amazing.”

Matt laughed. “I don’t think Foggy’s going to be happy unless you eat all of that.”

At this point, Theo was basically shoveling it in. “So I guess you can’t, I don’t know, hear anemia?”

“I would have said something if I knew you were getting sick. Foggy used to think it was creepy when I could tell he was coming down with something.”

“And now he’s just gotten used to it?”

“I think people would forgive you if you had a more ... balanced diet.”

“This isn’t about what other people think of me,” Theo insisted. “It’s never been about that. When I was a teenager, Pop took me to a slaughterhouse and taught me how to cut up a cow right off the line. And I decided, yup, that’s enough for me. Ever.”

“But you’re a butcher.”

“They’re already dead when I get them,” Theo said. “I’m numb to all of the blood and guts. I just don’t want to eat it myself. And it usually works fine.”

Matt didn’t think swallowing fistfuls of supplements at breakfast, lunch, and dinner like Theo did was fine, necessarily, but who was he to talk? He didn’t exactly take necessary precautions with his health.

“He didn’t hide it?” Foggy said as he returned. “Matt, you didn’t let him do that, did you?” He handed Theo a milk cartoon. “Fortified with protein and Vitamin D. Drink.”

“Uh, no, I am super full,” Theo said.

“He’s not lying,” Matt said. Theo’s stomach always sounded a little hungry, so this was a nice change. “Easy on the patient. He’s been through a lot.”

Foggy sighed, and pointed to Theo. “The paperwork’s done. You’re going home.”

“We need to reopen.”

“We can handle it,” Foggy said. Theo did employ two cashiers to work the register and tables, and Foggy had been around the store enough in his life, especially recently, to manage it for a few hours. “Go home and I won’t call our parents.”

“Deal,” Theo said and hopped off the exam table a little too quickly. “Shit.” He didn’t fall over, but Matt grabbed his arm anyway. He could tell Theo was having trouble finding balance. “I have to come back tomorrow for the iron transfusion. It sucks, but it works.”

“Steak would be easier,” Foggy said. “And less likely to make you throw up.”

“No.”

“I’m just sayin’.”

“Well, don’t.”

Matt hid his amusement. They walked Theo home, since it was so close to the store, and only let him go when he promised to drink the milk and take it easy for the rest of the day. They reopened the store and called up the help, but this meant legal work came to a complete halt as Foggy tried to keep track of everyone flying around him, and Karen ended up waiting tables. They left Matt in the back to review the recordings and text Theo, who repeatedly said he was fine, but also, could Matt maybe pick up all of the spinach he could find in Hell’s Kitchen and bring it by?

By closing time, everyone except Matt was exhausted, and Foggy was more certain than ever that being a lawyer was the right career path after all. They stopped by Theo’s apartment to drop off the spinach – and a tuna melt – but between being sidelined at his own business and sick from all the dairy, Theo was grumpy and threw them both out pretty quickly.

Daredevil had a busy, if somewhat distracted, night.

Theo was there in the morning to open the store, but he had to leave to get infusionary iron and came back with a massive bruise developing on his hand. He’d called up a friend to do the actual butchering since he was supposed to stay sitting down all day, and with his presence restored, things went smoothly. He even handled the call from the Health Department quickly and got them to agree not to send an inspector over needlessly.

“They better not motherfucking come,” the temp butcher said. His name was Randy and he was a big guy – tall and wide – and he worked in a restaurant uptown. “Motherfucking inspectors gave us a C last year and I’m still getting shit about it from the boss.”

It turned out cursing was backroom food service thing. So was strutting around with a butcher knife in any room not in view of the customers.

“You should rebrand,” he told Theo while standing in the doorway between the kitchen and the back room, completely oblivious to the legal work people might be attempting to do. “People don’t want the deli look anymore. They want the expensive barn look. Wood everywhere, like the cows are just wandering around in the back. And fancy cheeses only assholes are going to try right out in front so you look more French.”

“Yeah, I don’t think Zagat’s is coming by,” Theo said. He was eating from a gigantic Tupperware container of cooked spinach.

“You have an instagram account? I mean specifically for the business. Not for the spank bank.”

“Jesus Christ,” Theo said. “My baby brother is _right there_.”

“And a lady. Sorry, lady,” Randy said.

“I ran a diner. I’ve heard it all,” Karen replied. “And it’s Ms. Page to you.”

Matt had never heard her ask anyone to call her _Ms. Page_ before. Foggy was somewhere between horrified and trying not to burst out laughing. Matt was in a similar position.

“Sorry, Ms. Page,” Randy said, sounding a little genuinely sorry between slices of whatever part of the cow he was currently working on. Then he looked over his shoulder at Theo and said, “Is she single?”

“Why don’t you ask her?” Theo said, not looking up from his phone. “I’m sure she’ll appreciate the gesture, especially since you’re off to such a good fucking start.”

“I do not remember it being this bad,” Foggy said rather apologetically to Karen.

“Because you sat in front!” Theo said. “You only heard Mom and Pop talk in front of customers.”

“What a sheltered life I’ve led,” Foggy replied.

Theo eventually told Randy to cool it, but since it was hard to get a butcher on such short notice, they were forced to put up with his continued presence, especially when Theo had to be sent home after he started throwing up thanks to an adverse reaction to the iron infusion. Foggy sent him home with a packet of chicken soup mix from one of those brands that used absolutely no real chickens, and Matt swung by the apartment complex after his patrol, but Theo was already asleep with Sadie sitting on his head as if it was some kind of throne.  

He showed up the next day looking, according to Foggy, whiter than ever, after visiting his nutritionist. “No more iron infusions for me.”

“Go home,” Foggy said. No, demanded. “We can handle the shop.”

“You clearly cannot,” Theo said. “Maybe Karen can. Seems like she’s the only one who knows her way around an actual business. You know, the kind that turns a profit?”

“My previous employment was very profitable,” Foggy said. “Matt, on the other hand, will only take a job if he’s paid in food he’s going to find too greasy to eat, and I think Karen lives on spark and gumption.” He grabbed their most recent payment – a casserole dropped off that morning – off the desk and shoved it in Theo’s face. “Eat this and you can stay.”

“What’s in it?”

“Love. And guilt for not paying for high-quality legal advice.”

“It’s mostly green beans and hamburger helper,” Matt said.

“Matt! Not helping!”

“I’m fine,” Theo said from his chair in the corner, leaning his head against the wall. “I’m just gonna close my eyes for a minute.”

But he didn’t topple, and Foggy just sighed, because his brother could sleep standing up and Foggy knew he couldn’t carry him. And Matt, who was used to sleeping at work himself, didn’t offer.

Randy came in just in time for the lunch rush and started getting meat orders ready. Between the other employees and Karen, Matt and Foggy could actually do some legal work, just with Theo snoring softly in the background.

“Is Randy sick?” Foggy whispered. “He keeps running to the bathroom. We can’t have a sick person handling all the meat.”

“He’s just snorting coke,” Matt said as casually as he could.

“Fuck!” Foggy leapt to his feet and shook Theo awake. “Did you know Randy does drugs?”

Theo wiped his eyes. “Yeah. If you want a Michelin star you basically have to. As long as the orders go out okay, everything’s fine.”

“And I thought a career where I constantly have to meet people in jail was sketchy!”

“Your career is sleazy, not sketchy,” Theo said. “Weren’t you at a club that got shot up?”

Matt picked his head up. “What? When was this?”

“When we thought you were six feet under,” Foggy said. “And I don’t know why people even try to shoot at Luke Cage. Bullets cost money, right? They must cost something. And it’s not like I haven’t been shot before, _Matt_. At a much less cool place than a club in Harlem.” He held up his phone to Theo. “Check out how cool this place was before, you know, all of the shooting.”

Theo took Foggy’s phone and scrolled through it with his finger. “Wait. That’s Luke Cage?”

“Standing with your baby brother, yeah. And not just because he was paid to be there.”

“Fuck you, I know this guy!” Theo said, and his heart rate shot up. “I – I saw him at a bar once.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t get a selfie with him, did you?”

Matt kept his face blank. “Foggy, you’re very cool. I’m sure you got to hang out at a high class club and totally fit in.”

“People seemed to like me,” Foggy said. “I had a lot of branded vodka.”

“Sounds very cool. Sounds dope,” Matt said. “Now that we know how stylish and popular you are, can we get back to work?”

Theo suddenly decided to take Foggy’s advice and go home for the afternoon, and definitely not because he was avoiding anybody. Matt worked late, since they were actually getting something done for a change, then went by the apartment.

Theo opened the door. “Please tell me you didn’t bring any food.”

“Randy left a whole side for you to eat tomorrow.”

“Fuck you,” Theo said. He still sounded a little listless as he collapsed on his couch. “I have eaten more shit in the past two days than I have eaten in like a year. I’m full, okay.”

Matt smiled and shut the door behind him. “We’re just worried about you.”

“I don’t need anyone to worry about me.”

“ _I’m_ worried about you,” Matt said, holding his cane to his chest. “Usually the people I’m worried about are in some kind of danger, and I can fix that. I can beat up criminals. I can guard apartments. I can’t fix you.”

Theo’s whole posture softened. “I’m sorry. This is my fuck-up. It just has to work itself out.” He gestured to the fridge. “I’m not supposed to drink, but there’s beer if you want it.”

Matt nodded and took one for himself. “Do you know Danny Rand?”

“Who?”

“Danny Rand. The CEO of Rand Enterprises. Went missing as a kid, came back, it was a huge legal case?”

“No. Do I look like I know a billionaire?”

“Check for me. On your phone.”

Theo listened to him, and spent a minute scrolling. “No. I mean, I guess from the news. He assaulted a bunch of cops and then bought them off so he didn’t have to face charges. Rich people problems.”

“Thanks,” Matt said. “I just wanted to see how many vigilantes you’ve slept with.”

“You motherfucker!” Theo pointed at him. “You don’t say a fucking word! None of this ‘not keeping stuff from Foggy’ shit!”

Matt laughed. “I covered for you.”

“And yeah, I noticed. Thank you. But look – what happens on Grindr stays on Grindr. So no more questions!” He huffed and put away his phone. “I think he was just looking for a place to crash anyway.”

“Did you let him?”

“No! And zip it! No more questions!”

“Fine, fine.” Matt took a long drink. “Tony Stark?”

“No!”

“Steve Rogers?”

“No! And that would be like fucking an apple pie carried by a bald eagle or something.”

“Ant-Man?”

“Who the fuck is Ant-Man? Stop listing people I don’t know!” Theo said. “Hey ... didn’t you have a woman leave you for Luke Cage?”

“Uh,” Mat stammered. “It was more like she left me because I was getting hurt too much and she wanted me to stop fighting, and then she met Luke Cage and told him to fight crime. It’s connected in a very confusing way.”

“Ha!” Theo said in a sing-song voice, “ _You got dumped for Luke Cage_.”

“I did not!”

“ _You got dumped for Lu-ke Ca-age_.”

“And who’s benefited from that, huh?” Matt kissed him, not entirely to shut him up. “Are you gonna let me crash at your place?”

“Yeah. I’d be fuckin’ honored.”

Matt could settle for that.

The End


End file.
